I'm a strong believer that every cent of money that was received inappropriately should be paid back. It's taxpayers' money.
That's a quote from finance minister Loyola "Rain Man" Sullivan (left, looking a tad dyspeptic) speaking about overpayments allegedly made to current and former members of the House of Assembly.But here's the thing: while no sane person would disagree with Sullivan's comments, every sane person in the province wonders about the comment coming from the individual who sat on the House of Assembly's Internal Economy Commission for a good chunk of the overspending period. Sullivan's tenure included the time of some of the worst overspending, if we accept at face value the Auditor General's reports.
As such he knew or should have known what was going on. If he didn't, then we need to know why he didn't.
Sullivan's comments get a little more odd - if that's possible - considering that for two of the years involved he served both on IEC and as finance minister. As such he had financial reports coming to him from both the House of Assembly and from the province's Comptroller General. Some of us would like to know given that situation how Sullivan was blissfully unaware of the alleged financial improprieties.
Let's not even get into having Loyola explain how he could present grossly incorrect figures to the House of Assembly for two budgets in a row. The real figures - eventually released in the official Public Accounts - showed total overspending in members' allowances in the legislature of more than $1.0 million in 2004 and 2005 combined. Loyola's Estimates showed members' allowances as being exactly on budget.
Methinks the Rain Man is all wet.